Just two days after the killing of a 14-year-old boy in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City last Saturday, operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) killed the boy’s suspected assailant in an alleged shootout with police in neighboring Barangay Ermita yesterday.
The name of the killed suspect, Rolan Secretaria, immediately rings a bell as months earlier in May, headlines splashed across the front pages of local newspapers showed the death of Cebu City’s third most wanted drug lord, Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria in a police special operation on Banacon Island, Bohol.
Rolan of Ermita was Rowen’s cousin.
About an hour after Rolan was killed, three other suspects in the killing of high school student John Karl Diada surrendered to Ermita barangay captain Felicisimo Rupinta.
Among them was 32-year-old Michael Secretaria, younger brother of the slain drug lord.
According to police, Secretaria’s brother presented a submachine gun with 25 live bullets when he surrendered along with his alleged cohorts Gerald Flores and Daryl Abanto who also presented to police their guns.
All three suspects are detained at the Taboan Police Station detention cell.
Rolan Secretaria
PO3 Alexander Arias of the Taboan Police Station, one of those who conducted a follow-up operation against the teen’s alleged killers, said police chanced upon Rolan Secretaria walking in the streets of Ermita yesterday morning and ran after him.
Rolan reportedly entered the house of a neighbor and shot it out with police operatives, said Arias in a talk with Cebu Daily News.
Rolan was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center but was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.
Recovered from his possession were a .45 caliber pistol, a .28 caliber pistol, and 40 small plastic sachets containing a white crystalline substance believed to be shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), police said.
SPO4 Reynaldo Orenes of the Taboan Police Station said the motive for the killing of Diada had yet to be established.
The teenager was shot by three gunmen, who took turns shooting at him, while he was with his friends and girlfriend last Saturday in Sitio Lawis, Barangay Pasil at around 3:45 a.m.
Murder charges will be filed against the suspects before the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office this week.
Welcome development
At City Hall, Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella welcomed the capture of the suspects who, he said, should be properly investigated and charged in court.
“It is a welcome development because this (illegal drug) has become a social cancer, menace,” said Labella adding that the suspects should be “given their day in court”.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old man was shot dead by unknown assailants in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City at past 5 a.m. yesterday.
Edgardo Altobar, a carpenter, suffered a gunshot wound in the head.
Based on records of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), the total number of people killed by unknown assailants from July 1 to Sept. 26 had now reached 129 victims.
Most of those killed by unknown assailants were drug pushers, said Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of PRO-7.
At least 109 other drug suspects were killed in police operations.